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Bore Polishing

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shaman

40 Cal
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Jan 13, 2022
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Location
Browningsville, KY
I've recently acquired a Pedersoli Brown Bess. I was browsing Youtube and came up with this:




First off, his method seems a bit over the top, but I think the idea is great. Have any of you polished your bores? I'd like to hear your comments.

Secondly, I've recently done another batch of rifles with Dyna Tek Bore Coat. This stuff is amazing on my deer rifles. It makes fouling easy to remove, and it really improved my accuracy. I've got enough left that I think I could coat the 'Bess. The prep for this Is a deep clean of multiple passes with a light abrasive on a patch. I normally use Flitz or JB Bore Compound. I'm wondering if this would help the 'Bess. My main load will be patched .735 ball, but I'm also considering .69 cartridge loads and #6 shot turkey loads. My guess is that the Bore Coat treatment and the polishing it requires will do as good or better than running 0000 steel wool for an hour up and down the bore.
 
As per Mike's statement his "polishing" did have an effect on the ease of reloading. Must have been a somewhat rough (micro burrs) chrome plating. Either way he got a satisfactory result for his effort. :thumb:
 
I wasn't aware of that Britsmoothy, got a chuckle out of it! I have polished Smooth bores though and do use the maroon scotch write, then instead of 0000steel wool I finish with pumice and paraffin oil, then rottenstone.
Robby
 
I jag the bore with a polishing compound paste and chamise cloth, I start with Emory and move up to green which is around 800 -1000 grit. I use a jag that is 1 size smaller and i shim the chamise cloth with paper. I only do this when my cleaning patches are showing some rust.
 
Woody, what grit and abrasive do you use? I This looks like it might be just the ticket for a .58 smooth bore pistol I have been working on. Terrible bore and undersized to boot! First time I got hosed in all the years of muzzleloading.
 
Rifleman1776 said:
That's news to me. Always or just in recent years?


Read it somewhere. I'm sure mine was.

A quick look has not revealed anything to back my statement. If I am wrong then I apologise.

Not sure if they do that on the ones they import to the UK, but I've never run into one here that was chrome plated. Also, the polishing Duelist did would not affect a chrome plated bore, WAY too tough to polish up chrome plating.

Gus
 
I've recently acquired a Pedersoli Brown Bess. I was browsing Youtube and came up with this:




First off, his method seems a bit over the top, but I think the idea is great. Have any of you polished your bores? I'd like to hear your comments.

Secondly, I've recently done another batch of rifles with Dyna Tek Bore Coat. This stuff is amazing on my deer rifles. It makes fouling easy to remove, and it really improved my accuracy. I've got enough left that I think I could coat the 'Bess. The prep for this Is a deep clean of multiple passes with a light abrasive on a patch. I normally use Flitz or JB Bore Compound. I'm wondering if this would help the 'Bess. My main load will be patched .735 ball, but I'm also considering .69 cartridge loads and #6 shot turkey loads. My guess is that the Bore Coat treatment and the polishing it requires will do as good or better than running 0000 steel wool for an hour up and down the bore.

Mike did the same thing with his kit built Lyman Hawken minus the burnishing. It worked for him with that rifle as well.
 
I follow up with a wad of 0000 steel wool wrapped around a shotgun mop. Talk about smooth.



I used a 16mm Flex Hone tool.

wm
I bought a 180"grit" and 800 "grit" flex hone in 12 gauge to use of a couple of original SxS British guns. I used the 800 hone on a 1970's Pedersoli that had been a kit (not well built) in need of some considerable love and attention. I also got a modest supply of flex hone cutting oil.
 
Be careful with power hones and shotgun barrels . I have see some with ruined muzzles because someone used a hone to try to open the choke . Old barrels are not always that hard .
 
Not trying to be overly critical of Duelist, but he may have gotten very lucky, even though he used some real care in doing the polishing and did not go too far with the wrong materials.

The best way to polish a bore and IMO the only way, is to pull the breech plug and always do it from the breech. One can't help but open the bore more on the end the polishing is done from, so it is always best to begin from the breech.

Gus
 
Not trying to be overly critical of Duelist, but he may have gotten very lucky, even though he used some real care in doing the polishing and did not go too far with the wrong materials.

The best way to polish a bore and IMO the only way, is to pull the breech plug and always do it from the breech. One can't help but open the bore more on the end the polishing is done from, so it is always best to begin from the breech.

Gus

Agree Gus, i do this for my guns that need extra care, not often of course and i remove the breech and work from teh breech forward. Polishing the bore isn’t something that really needs to be done regularly, a good thorough cleaning with a bore brush, mop, or soap pad on a smoothbore should suffice.

Using abrasives in the bore should only be done when absolutely needed.
 
you can get the hones from Granger, just find the size you need. same style used for deglaze of engine cylinder walls for new piston rings. I have used them on .410,28,20ga. flinters. also on rifle n handgun sticky chambers. finish with flitz n 3m pad.
 

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